Year: 2013

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Milked as much time here as I could before heading to St. Louis where, regular readers know by know, family and friends await.

So far, it seems, I’m enjoying myself on this road trip more than the Sharks are. Feel maybe a little guilty, but not much. Trust that’s OK.

Last night’s 3-2 loss to the Predators was one where the Sharks didn’t kick it into gear until they were down 2-0 and even then didn’t have anything to show for it for a while. Too little, too late and that was the gist of the game story for the print edition and available online here .

Not a whole lot to add to that, but for those of you wondering what happened to Marc-Edouard Vlasic that caused him to miss two or three shifts in the second period, here’s your answer:

Vlasic talked to us after the game with an ice bag wrapped around his right ankle. But even then – following team edicts – he wouldn’t get into the specifics of any injury.

“Blocked a shot, had a skate problem,” he said. “Takes me a long time to tie up my skates.”

Whatever, his time off the ice was limited, probably by the magic of modern medicinal numbing agents.

That Vlasic material, by the way, is also in a Sharks notebook filed earlier for Monday’s print edition. It mostly looks at the team’s recent 5-on-5 play and you can find it online here as well.

****The reason I didn’t sacrifice sleep for an early morning flight to St. Louis had more to do with the CBA than anything else. Today happens to be one of the four mandated days off for December so that means there was no practice.

****Once again, Antti Niemi played well – but not well enough to win. Hard to blame him for the first Nashville goal when a shot deflected off traffic in front of the crease. Difficult to fault him too much on the second either as the Sharks penalty kill left Roman Josi all alone in the slot to fire a one-timer from the slot after a pass from behind the net.

“It was tough to find the puck,” Niemi said, “which side to look for it.”

That third goal, however, was one Niemi agreed he needed to make the save on. And Todd McLellan looked at it the same way.

“The third one, I’m sure he’d like that back,” the coach said.

****Different players looked at the loss differently. To Joe Thornton, it was a matter of special teams play as Nashville went 1-for-2 while San Jose was 0-for-2.
“I thought we played solid,” Thornton said. “Every game we seem to play, it’s always whoever wins the special teams wins the game. Tonight they got the one power play goal and we didn’t. That’s basically what the NHL comes down to right now is who’s better on the special teams.”

The goal was the first given up by San Jose’s short-handed crew in five games, so it’s hard to call it a trend. And Couture wasn’t suggesting anything needed to change other than execution

“No, I believe in the system,” he said, “it’s just the way that we’re not executing it. Every night it’s different guys. The system is the right one, we’re just not executing on the penalty kill.”

NASHVILLE – That sniping by Minnesota Wild Coach Mike Yeo after the Sharks got seven power plays en route to a 3-1 victory the other night, the complaints about embellishing?

Turns out Yeo called Todd McLellan the next morning to apologize.

“He thought they were out of line and not appropriate,” McLellan told the media this morning after San Jose finished its skate in preparation for tonight’s game against the Nashville Predators.

McLellan left the impression that he was more than a little irked by Yeo’s comments. There was no media access Friday as it was strictly a travel day for the Sharks. But McLellan said he was ready to show video clips of Brad Stuart taking a stick to the face.

More on the topic is in the online story just filed and available here .

The Sharks coach did leave the impression that bygones are bygones now that Yeo called to apologize.

“Once you say something it’s hard to take it back,” McLellan said, “but I appreciate him reaching out and clarifying that.”

****That online story also notes that the Sharks will face Carter Hutton – a former San Jose prospect – in goal tonight for the Predators.

In the back-up role, Hutton has won Nashville’s last two games against the New York Rangers and Dallas Stars. Including a relief stint, he has a .972 save percentage and 0.87 goals against average for December.

SAN JOSE — During their four-game losing streak, the Sharks were a weak 1-for-13 on the power play and twice coughed up two-goal leads.

Thursday night, they were 3-for-7 on the power play and watched their two-goal lead grow into a three-goal lead, beating the Minnesota Wild by the same 3-1 score that they lost to them on Sunday night in frigid St. Paul.

All that’s pretty much covered in the print edition story available online here .

But the post-game attention was really on the Wild side, where Coach Mike Yeo accused the Sharks of embellishing, singling out Brad Stuart in particular on the first penalty — a high-sticking call against Justin Fontaine — that led to San Jose’s initial goal.

“It must be nice to draw penalties like that,” Yeo said. “The other team goes stick on puck and you just kind of hold your head. Make sure you look at the first penalty. Because to me, that’s embarrassing. I don’t know. I guess we’ve got to ask our players to embellish more.”

Later, asked if he thought his team’s play at even strength had improved, Yeo went back to the same topic.

“This is why I’m pissed off,” he said. “Because our guys battled hard tonight. We didn’t do enough, there’s no question. We were obviously in the box too much and we didn’t finish well enough. The penalty kill we can’t — it doesn’t matter how many times they dive, we’ve got to make sure we kill them off – or embellish, I shouldn’t say just dive.”

Strangely, he didn’t even bring up the phantom call against the Wild, the four-minute double minor to Zenon Konopka for high-sticking Jason Demers when it was Freddie Hamilton’s stick that did the damage. Oh well.

****Logan Couture hit the ice hard in the third period after being struck in the face by Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s shot. Then it looked as if he might have hurt himself even more by pounding the ice with his gloved hand in frustration.

Couture went back to the locker room for repairs, then returned.

“It was just knuckling,” he said of the puck that struck him. “Me being stupid — I wear my visor up a little, a little high. That had something to do with it.”

****Strictly a travel day for the Sharks. I take to the skies, too.

But there were things bigger picture that I thought we were much better with.

SAN JOSE – This time, if the Sharks fall short, they won’t be able to blame the stellar play of Minnesota Wild goalie Josh Harding.

Harding had 37 saves Sunday night when the Wild beat San Jose 3-1 at the Xcel Energy Center. But he played last night in a 2-1 loss in Anaheim, and the Wild are throwing Niklas Backstrom into the nets tonight at the SAP Center.

Backstrom is only 6-12-3 against San Jose over his career, but his 3.07 save percentage is an improvement over Harding’s 3.55 career mark against the Sharks, who will start Antti Niemi in goal for the 28th time in 32 games.

The other development from the morning skate is Todd McLellan’s decision to move Joe Pavelski back to centering the third line with Tommy Wingels and Matt Nieto on the wings. Most of that is covered in the online story filed earlier and available here .

That basically means the Sharks are back to the same top three lines that started the season with a likely fourth line of Andrew Desjardins, Freddie Hamilton and Marty Havlat.

Nieto started the season strong, then faltered after suffering a hand injury blocking a shot in Boston that caused him to miss two games. By that point, Wingels was filling in elsewhere for the injured Brent Burns. Eventually, Nieto was sent down to Worcester, where a quirk in the schedule had him playing in only two games. He scored five points in one of them, however, and was soon back with San Jose.

“I think he handled it well as a player,” Pavelski said. “He goes down there and they only played one or two games in two weeks. It’s tough. It’s a young guy that gets a good start here, produced, and he handled that extremely well. I think that speaks to his character and you have to give him all the credit for doing that and getting the chance back up here again.”

****After that 3-1 defeat in Minnesota, Todd McLellan said that his team’s effort on the power play was the most disappointing he had seen in his six seasons with the Sharks. So does he plan to approach things differently this time, or just count on better execution?

SAN JOSE – Had to spend a little more time at Sharks Ice than usual today because the sheriff was in town.

Brenden Shanahan stopped by the practice rink on his way home from the NHL board of governors meetings in Pebble Beach. It’s a routine visit, one he makes to each of the 30 franchises but it delayed those of us waiting to talk with Todd McLellan and he after his players got off the ice.

Basically, Shanahan explains the process by which his office reviews games and situations, then takes questions from the players and coaches.

“It was a good meeting,” Todd McLellan said. “It was their opportunity to come out, and they do it with all the teams, to share with the team the purpose of player safety . . . . Took us through all of that. I think it was valuable for all the players. If there was any gray area, it should be cleared up now as to what the process is.”

The process, maybe. But what about the decisions themselves. Did anyone bring up the Raffi Torres suspension in Game 1 of the playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings.

What the character on “Hogan’s Heroes” used to say, of course, was “I know nothing.”

I posed a variation on the question to a player walking through the locker room (whose identity I’ll chose to protect since it was only banter), wondering who brought up the Torres suspension.

“Everybody” was the answer, accompanied by a grin.

I had hoped to get a couple minutes with Shanahan, but by the time he finished a lengthy chat with McLellan and Doug Wilson, I was advised he had to race to catch his flight.

McLellan and Shanahan, of course, have more than a passing acquaintance. The Sharks coach was an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings for Shanahan’s final season there.

****Shanahan’s visit got a brief mention in the Sharks Notebook that I filed earlier this afternoon. You can find it online here .

In the notebook, we paid more attention to the bad habit the Sharks have picked up lately of not being able to protect two goal leads. Did them in against both Carolina and the New York Islanders over the past week and that losing streak is now four games.

McLellan is quoted in the story, but here’s a more complete accounting of what he had to say.

“It’s disappointing and every situation has been different. Last night, we should be fresh. I thought we were. I don’t think it was a result of fatigue or anything like that where Carolina, maybe you could look at that.

“Last night you could eliminate fatigue, both mentally and physically. It was two-fold – the game management, it got loose and it got loose because we didn’t reward ourselves for the opportunities we created early in the game. So we began to force it and cheat a little bit and all of a sudden, where we were strong, we were now weak.

We gave up outnumbered rushes. And when you give up a goal at the beginning of the period and at the end of the period, that stings a lot. You should be able to shut it down in that time frame.

“Disappointing to say the least. Yet looking at the forecheck and the energy that we played with, it went up significantly from where it was on the road trip. The power play was better so we’ll try and take some positives out of it. But there are some negatives that linger and have to be fixed.”

****They’ll try to fix them against a Minnesota Wild team that is playing tonight in Anaheim (though that second half of back to backs business didn’t work out to San Jose’s favor against the Islanders). The Wild beat San Jose 2-1 Sunday in St. Paul, where the home team is 13-3-2; Minnesota isn’t nearly as good on the road at 5-6-3, but the Sharks will have to make the SAP Center less hospitable to take advantage of that.

****That notebook also mentions the fact McLellan abandoned Plan A and went to Plan B by moving Pavelski off the third line and onto one with Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau. The move didn’t get the desired two points out of the game, but that was clearly San Jose’s best line.

McLellan suggested there were reasons for moving Pavelski off the third line that go beyond getting the team out of a slump. In this case, for example, the staff wanted to see how well Freddie Hamilton would do on the third line.

“It’s something we need to find out,” McLellan said. “You never know what can happen injury-wse or player-movement-wise, so we need to find out a lot about that situation.”

The coach’s assessment of the Couture line with Pavelski on it?

“I thought Logan’s line was very dynamic offensively. When we looked at the chances, it wasn’t even close in comparison to the other three lines. So that was a good thing.

“But,” he continued, “what are you doing on the other two-thirds of the ice and that needs to get polished up, too. On all the lines.

Hamilton and Matt Nieto have been linemates in Worcester. While they weren’t against Minnesota, they were reunited against the Islanders.
“They’ve had some chemistry over the last couple weeks in Worcester,” McLellan said. “Both have been real good energizers for our team to this point. Felt comfortable playing them together.”

****Mike Brown skated with his teammates for the first time since aggravating an injury in the Dec. 3 game in Toronto. McLellan didn’t rule out Brown cracking the lineup against Minnesota, though it didn’t seem likely.

McLellan did rule out Scott Hannan, saying the veteran defenseman has an upper body injury and will not be good to go.

For once — and maybe because it’s the end of a week on the road — I’m not seeing a lot in the notebook that needs to be added here.

The bottom line is that the energy was better (Matt Nieto’s six shots paced the team, but that’s in the online story, too) though the results certainly were not.

One more thing: Marty Havlat was not a healthy scratch. McLellan said only he was “not available” and we’ve learned enough not to push for injury information, especially after a loss. Very non-productive. Besides, with Havlat having blocked three shots in the Carolina game, there’s a pretty good chance we’re talking lower body.

We’ll get back at that Tuesday, though it may be @CurtisPashelka doing the pushing as I’m scheduled to have the day off after a day in airports tomorrow.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Sharks have resisted the temptation to move Joe Pavelski into a Top Six role all season, knowing that they have better scoring balance if they can keep him as their third-line center.

But with two regulation losses in a row and Pavelski’s line not chipping in with a goal over that stretch, Coach Todd McLellan appears to be ready to go in that direction when San Jose faces the Minnesota Wild in a relatively early 3 p.m. PST start today.

McLellan did not disclose his lines this morning beyond saying that Matt Nieto and Freddie Hamilton would both be playing.

But word in the locker room was that Nieto would be skating alongside Andrew Desjardins and Tommy Wingels while Hamilton was on a line with Tyler Kennedy and James Sheppard.

That would appear to move Pavelski to the Logan Couture-Patrick Marleau line with Marty Havlat and John McCarthy watching from the press box.

That’s the gist of the online story I filed earlier this morning and here is where you’ll find that.

Even with Saturday off, the morning skate was an optional one, by the way, so no line rushes to observe. But McLellan did disclose that Antti Niemi was getting the start against the Wild.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Turns out that while the players had the day off per CBA requirement, the front office had a little business to take care of after the Sharks lost a second straight game on this trip.

Up from Worcester: Matt Nieto and Freddie Hamilton.

Back to Worcester: Matt Pelech.

Nieto started strong with San Jose at the beginning of the season, geting two goals and four assists in 19 games. But with Nieto cooling off and both Brent Burns and Marty Havlat healthy again, Nieto ended up being dispatched to Worcester. Because of gaps in the schedule there, he only played two games, but one of them was last night against the Portland Pirates and Nieto ended up with five points on two goals and three assists.

Hamilton played only four games in San Jose and was held scoreless, but had a goal and two assists in that win over Portland. Overall, Hamilton had 10 points in 15 AHL games.

Will be interesting to see if McLellan deploys both his new players — in part because that could mean Marty Havlat would be a healthy scratch for the second time this season. It would be hard to argue, though, that Joe Pavelski’s line has been more effective with Havlat than it was with Nieto.

****Late add: Mike Brown on IR. McLellan has said he’s been somewhere between healthy and not the last couple games that he’s sat out, so not a shock to hear.

****More on the Sharks lack of a Saturday practice and the aftermath of that loss in Carolina in Sunday’s print edition story. You can find it online here .

RALEIGH, N.C. — Serious winter storm system should be moving into Pittsburgh probably right about now, but I was able to move my afternoon flight to earlier in the day so here I am, well-positioned to see if the Sharks can rebound from that loss to the Penguins.

We don’t get access to Todd McLellan for another five hours, so no answers on who the starting goalie will be against the Hurricane just yet. I did ask after that 5-1 defeat, but he said he still wanted to talk with the coaching staff before making the call.

But there are a couple things left over from last night that I can pass along.

****Include me among the surprised when Mike Brown wasn’t in the starting lineup one game after his second goal as a Shark and a role on a fourth line that McLellan said made the difference (in a good way) in the 4-2 win over Toronto.

There was some scuttlebutt that Brown was injured, and while McLellan did say Brown was banged up, he also added that he could have played. Guess that makes him a semi-healthy scratch. Will try to find out today what that was all about.

****McLellan was pretty direct in why he shifted centers on his third and fourth lines midway through the second period. That’s in the game story filed last night, and if you haven’t read it yet, look for it here .

Basically, Joe Pavelski ended up on the fourth line and Andrew Desjardins moved up to the third. Without naming individuals, the coach said he didn’t like the frustration he was seeing on the ice. Part of his quote made it into the story, but here’s the more complete thought:

“I saw some frustrated players. And with the amount of hockey that we’ve played and that we have to play on this road trip, I didn’t think frustration was a real good emotion to have with two periods left so we mixed them around a little bit and hopefully saved a little bit of energy for tomorrow because we didn’t use much tonight.”

PITTSBURGH – The Sharks won’t be facing the Pittsburgh Penguins at full strength tonight as Evgeni Malkin had to leave the morning skate with a lower body injury.

And “day to day,” was all the information Penguins Coach Dan Bylsma would disclose.

Just filed a quick online story that’s available here – and the only thing I’ll repeat here is Todd McLellan’s reaction. First McLellan talked about how one man does not make a team, how the Penguins have played through injuries in the past – sometimes even getting better.

And then the Sharks coach was asked if maybe part of him regretted not seeing how his team would fare against Pittsburgh at full strength.

“No (pause). No,” McLellan said. “How’s that?”

Major points for honesty.

That was the big news, but a few more things to pass along before the puck drops tonight:

****Sidney Crosby was surrounded by a Canada-like number of TV cameras this morning and I’m advised that’s not just because it’s his 500th game or the caliber of tonight’s opposition. Happens every game day.

Crosby, who’ll be playing in his 500th game, was asked if the Penguins would be amped up more than usual playing a Sharks team riding high right now.

“Maybe a little bit,” the NHL’s leading scorer said. “We expect a tough game and want to make sure we’re at our best. A challenge like that, you want to be at your best.”